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Mario Was Once Voiced by Optimus Prime
Mario has had a lot of voice actors over the years, from Charles Martinent, the current voice of the icon, to Captain Lou Albano on the Super Mario Bros. Super Show. However, Mario was once voiced by Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prims, when he showed up in the 1983 show Saturday Supercade’s Donkey Kong shorts.

24
Mario Lent His Name to Other Iconic Nintendo Characters
Wario, is a portmanteau of Mario and Warui, the Japanese word for bad or evil. In English, he is very obviously just Wario with the M flipped upside down. More obscure, Captain Olimar from Pikmin is just a backward spelling of Mario in Japanese. Ma-Ri-Oh. Oh-Ri-Ma. Try saying it out loud and you will hear the similarities.

23
Wart Showed Up in a Zelda Game
Wart, the villain from Super Mario Bros 2, only showed up in one other notable Nintendo game. That game was The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. There, he went by his original Japanese name Mamu and actually aided Link in his quest by teaching him a song!

22
Shigeru Miyamoto Had Nothing to Do With Super Mario Land
We normally think of Shigeru Miyamoto as the father of Mario, but one of the earliest Mario games wasn’t made by Miyamoto at all. Instead, Super Mario Land, the first Mario game for the Gameboy, was made by Gunpei Yokoi, the Gameboy’s original developer.

21
Mario’s Wardrobe Has Been Inverted
When Mario was first drawn, his overalls were red and his shirt was blue. This has been changed to blue overalls and a red shirt in his sprite for Super Mario Bros 2., but oddly enough not his box art.

20
The Starman Was the First Mario Power-Up to Have Eyes
It’s not that strange to find mushrooms and flowers with eyes on them throughout the many strange worlds that Mario travels these days. However, the very first power-up to have eyes was the Starman. Every other power-up in the original Super Mario Bros. was blind.

19
Birdo is Transgendered
The original manual for Super Mario Bros. 2 states rather clearly that Birdo is guy who thinks he is a girl. Then again, sex and gender must be a sticky subject for a species of reptile who lays eggs by spitting them like projectiles through its mouth.

18
Super Mario Bros. 2 Is Actually Doki Doki Panic
Super Mario Bros. 2 wasn’t originally a Mario Bros. game at all. Instead, it was an American adaptation of the Japanese title Dream Factory: Doki Doki Panic. The game starred four characters with Arabian themes to their character designs. The characters were Imajin, Lina, Mama and Papa who had to travel through a dream world. The “real” Super Mario Bros. 2 is what we know as The Lost Levels.

17
Super Mario Bros. 2 Defined Luigi’s Character
The Lost Levels, the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2, was the first game to give Luigi higher jumps than Mario. The American Super Mario Bros 2 was the first game to draw Luigi as taller than Mario. Luigi replaced Mama from Doki Doki Panic, who had high floaty jumps because he was given higher jumps in The Lost Levels. Mama was a taller sprite than Imajin, who would later become Mario, though it’s unclear whether or not this eventually influenced Nintendo’s decision to increase Luigi’s height.

16
Chain Chomps Are Modeled After a Traumatic Childhood Event
These black chomping balls at the end of chains were actually inspired by a traumatic event in Shigeru Miyamoto’s childhood where a neighbor’s dog chased him before being yanked back by a chain attached to its collar.

15
Mario’s Original Profession Was Carpentry
Mario’s first appearance was in the classic arcade game Donkey Kong. Here, he was a carpenter working construction on the building that Donkey Kong escaped to the top of. His profession was later changed to plumber when pipes and sewers became a focus of the original Mario Bros. arcade game. *Bonus fact* Popeye was supposed to be the star of Donkey Kong, but Nintendo couldn't get the rights to the character. When they finally got the rights, they made the now classic Popeye arcade game

14
The Super Mario Land 2 Bear Was a Gameboy Camera Mascot
In Super Mario Land 2’s Mario Zone, you can find a bear rolling around atop a ball. This is the only time this enemy has shown up in the Mario series, but he has shown up in other Nintendo titles. When the GameBoy Camera was connected to the Gameboy Printer, this bear would roll around on the screen while your pictures were printing.

13
Super Mario Land 2’s Mario Zone Was a Toy Advertisement
The Mario Zone of Super Mario Land 2 has a very overt toy theme to it. However, at certain points in the level you can find the letters N & B on the walls. N & B was a toy manufacturer in Japan and Nintendo sold some of their toys before entering the video game market.

12
Bowser’s Fireball Is Backwards
If you look closely at Bowser’s fireball sprite, the trailing flames of the fireball are actually pointing forward. Meanwhile, the lighter fiery part of ball itself is at the back!

11
Mario Was Named After a Nintendo Office Landlord
When Mario first made his appearance, he was only known as Jumpman. His name was changed to Mario after Mario Segale, the landlord to Nintendo’s first American office/warehouse. Nintendo was supposedly late on rent and Segale looked the other way, trusting them to pay him at a later date. In thanks, Segale was forever immortalized as the namesake for the most popular video game mascot of all time.

10
The Clouds and Bushes in Super Mario Bros Use the Same Sprite
When you have limited memory and colors to work with, you have to get innovative. In this case, the clouds and the bushes in Super Mario Bros. are actually the same sprite! The only difference is their color and the amount of the sprites that you can see.

9
Several Mario Games Never Actually Happened
Most of you know that Super Mario Bros. 2 is just a dream by now. But did you know that Super Mario Bros. 3 never happened either? The game opens to a curtain rising and the levels of the game have platforms bolted into the background. This all supports the theory that Mario 3 was actually a stage play, put on for the player. Further supporting this theory is the fact that all levels go black at the end, as if Mario was walking offstage. Several other games, such as the Mario Party series, take place in dreams, games, tournaments, or non-canonical timelines as well.

8
Mario Is Dying on the Super Mario Bros. Cover
Examine the original Super Mario Bros. cover for a second. Mario is in the middle of a jump, pressed up against a wall, with lava underneath him. The only way this could possibly happen is if Mario was falling downward toward the lava as there is no platform underneath him. Thus, Mario is on his way to an unfortunate death in the SMB cover shot.

7
Super Mario Bros. Had a Sequel That Wasn’t Super Mario Bros. 2 or The Lost Levels
We talked a lot about Super Mario Bros. 2 and The Lost Levels on this list, but there was an earlier Super Mario Bros. sequel that came out before both of them. The sequel was called Super Mario Bros Secret and it was released for the NEC-PC8801 and Sharp X1 series of Japanese PCs by Nintendo and Hudson Soft. The game brought back barrels, fire enemies from Donky Kong as well as the flies, icicles and crabs from the original Arcade version of Mario Bros. It also introduced several new power-ups including the hammer, which performed the same function it did in Donkey Kong; the clock, which would add more seconds to the stage timer; and, believe it or not, the first introduction of the P-Wing, which would allow Mario to act as if he was swimming through air.

6
Nintendo Wanted Mario to Ride a Dinosaur in the NES Days
Shigeru Miyamoto wanted Mario to ride a dinosaur way back when Super Mario Bros. first released, but the Nintendo’s technical limitations wouldn’t allow it. Miyamoto never gave up on this dream, however, and when the SNES came out, Yoshi was introduced.

5
Super Mario Bros. Was the First Videogame Franchise Based Movie
Super Mario Bros., the movie not the game, was the first movie based on a video game franchise… and it was horrible! Video game movies have totally sucked ever since. Ok, the first Mortal Kombat was pretty cool.

4
Shigeru Miyamoto Thought the Mario Bros. Movie Was Too Similar to the Games
Strangely enough, Miyamoto agreed that the Super Mario Bros. movie was horrible, but not for the reasons we think. Miyamoto once told Edge Online that the movie was too much like the game and that’s why it failed. He would have rather seen it become an entertaining movie on its own merits, rather than being a movie about a video game.

3
It's Possible to Jump Over the Flagpole in the Original Super Mario Bros.
If you try really, really, really hard, you can, in fact, jump over the flagpole in the original Super Mario Bros. without ending the level. Unfortunately, there isn’t much beyond it. There’s no secret level or hidden bonus. The game simply doesn’t know how to handle your new location, as you were never supposed to jump over it in the first place. Instead, you’ll just run forever with the castle you passed up in the background until the timer runs out and you die.

2
Mario’s Entire Design Was a Way of Coping With Graphical Limitations
Mario’s wardrobe and facial features were all designed as a way to get around early graphical limitations of consoles. He was given a moustache because the limited amount of pixel space made it hard to draw a mouth. He was given a hat because it was difficult to draw realistic looking hair. He was given overalls so the player could tell that he was swinging his hands back and forth as he was walking or running, as they would pass over the yellow buttons on the front.

1
Jokes About Mario Doing Drugs Are More Than a Joke
Finally, we have all heard the 'Mario is a druggie' joke by now. “He wanders through a bizarre world eating mushrooms and smoking flowers while turtles and living bullets try to kill him. He’s trippin' balls, man!” It’s an old and not very funny joke but there is some truth to it. Mario’s ability to grow and shrink through the usage of mushrooms was inspired by Alice in Wonderland according to a 2005 interview Miyamoto had with Business Week. Alice in Wonderland has frequently been read as an allegory for drug use so, in an indirect way, the mushrooms of the Mario series really are inspired by hallucinatory drugs. And those are your 25 Facts You Didn't Know About Mario.

Didn't read, don't care :carling:

Seriously, read like 2 or 3 of them and its pretty boring to read

Indeed he does

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Knew some of them